Your website alone is not going to make you money, make your art popular or drive traffic. It is simply the home base of your art brand. Of you. As I’ve mentioned in one of my previous videos, it’s important still to have one of these and more options are available to do it easily, cheaply and with great design.
But it’s important to create a web presence through the connection of different communities and “cities”.
Social Media is the City. The traffic driver to your main website and main channels. You connect and develop relationships, business or personal, with other people who would otherwise have NOT seen your website or artwork. It’s the most economical and exciting form of website promotion. You only need to invest the time and practice of social media to make this happen. We’re not longer dependent on traditional advertising to expand your brand or expose your website to others.
A WEBSITE CANNOT STAND ALONE
Expect traffic and sales and you are foolish. Heavy advertising, word of mouth and self promotion are the only ways to make a website successful. It is a static marker. A calling card. But it is not simply known because it exists.
SOCIAL MEDIA IS THE VIRUS
You can draw new fans and collectors through social media to your website. Social Media is the gateway for others to come VISIT your website. Social Media is the conduit that builds your website from a small island to a major city. Your participation and content is key to this working.
GOOD WEB PRESENCE MEANS MULTIPLE STREAMS OF TRAFFIC
If you’re new the scene or an established artist with little information across the web about your work, creating a variety of social profiles across the web will help draw traffic from different places. Some people choose to use certain social networks but not others. If you expand your brand across many, you have MORE chances of connecting with others who’d love your work.
YOUR VEHICLE IS THROUGH REAL TIME COMMUNICATION
Newsletters and email marketing is still vital and important to art business but real time content sharing and communication is great for connecting, engaging and communicating with your audience. Sites like Google +, Twitter, Facebook’s timeline and others offer instant, present content sharing. Ask questions, answer questions, share photos of your work, what you’re doing. This reminds and inspires people to go to your website and other social profiles. It helps create awareness of your art and your web presence grows.
5 WAYS TO START BUILDING WEB PRESENCE
1. Create a blog and begin to share. Write about your life, your artwork, your experiences or things that you love/hate. There are great communities on Tumblr or WordPress.com for example where free blogging tools are offered and there is already a built in community of people who follow. Connect this to your main website and social profiles. Better yet, some artists use THIS as their main website. You can now create pages just like a website to put your resume, about, shop and other information.
2. Create social profiles and connect with others. Artists you could learn from, people in industries that you could collaborate with, people that might like your art or just people you would find interesting. Sites like Twitter have great searching options to find people by subject, tweet topics or interests.
3. Create a consistent identity. Make sure your logos and avatars as well as pictures of yourself are the same across all social profiles so they are more easily identifiable and memorable. I myself have made the mistake of having so many different pictures of myself and even in different hair colors that people weren’t sure they were talking to the same person!
4. Share your work! Take lower resolution images of your art (at 72dpi and with copyright watermark) and make them available in folders you’ve marked to upload/share on your social profiles. It helps people to see your work.
5. Be involved and make friends! It isn’t all about promoting and advertising yourself. It’s like anything in life. You become interested in other people and they become interested in you. Without some genuine connection with your friends and fans, who will want to see/listen? Be genuinely interested and supportive of others!
